Matadors Continue Road Trip at Stanford

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Men's Basketball (1-1) travels north to face Stanford on Tuesday evening at Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m. Live stats will be provided and live audio will be available on the CSUN Sports Network with Ghizal Hasan on the call. The game will also be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.

The Matadors are coming off a 102-87 loss at No. 16 UCLA on Sunday. In a game with 11 ties and 14 lead changes, the Matadors fell to the Bruins despite shooting 50.0 percent from the field and leading by a 42-40 margin at halftime. The Bruins rode a second-half surge to build a double-digit lead and hold off CSUN down the stretch.

Four Matadors scored in double figures against the Bruins with Kendall Smith leading the way with 21 points to go along with five steals, four rebounds and four assists. Tavrion Dawson had 18 points and nine rebounds while Aaron Parks chipped in with 18 points of his own and Darin Johnson finished with 15 points. Rakim Lubin almost posted a double-double as he recorded 13 rebounds and eight points in 20 minutes.

Through two games, Smith leads the team in scoring with 19.0 points per game while Johnson (17.5), Parks (17.0) and Dawson (16.5) are also scoring in double figures. On the glass, Lubin is posting a team-best 9.5 rebounds and Dawson is second with 7.5 boards. Smith also leads CSUN in assists (5.5) and steals (3.0) thus far in the early season.

Parks continues to move closer to cracking the Matadors' all-time Top 10 free throws made list. By going 8-of-9 at the charity stripe over the first two games of the season, Parks needs four more made free throws to move into 10th place in the school's record books. He is also 35 attempted free throws away from reaching CSUN's Top 10 list as he is currently at 427.

After facing Stanford, the Matadors will head home to meet Northern Illinois on Saturday on The Blacktop @ The Matadome at 8 p.m. From there, CSUN will compete in the Wooden Legacy Tournament beginning on Thursday, Nov. 24 at 11 a.m. against Texas A&M.

The Matadors have faced the Cardinal on four occasions in the head-to-head series all-time. Stanford has posted victories in all four contests but the teams have not met since the 2008-09 season. In the teams' last meeting, the Cardinal earned a 103-84 win over CSUN.

A Closer Look at Stanford
Stanford began the 2016-17 season in Shanghai, China as the Cardinal defeated Harvard, 80-70, last Friday. Last season, Stanford went 15-15 overall and 8-10 in Pac-12 play for a ninth-place finish in the conference. Head coach Jerod Haase is in his first season at the helm of the Cardinal.

Junior forward Reid Travis posted a double-double in Stanford's season-opening win as he finished with 24 points and 17 rebounds. Also up front, junior forward Michael Humphrey collected 15 points and the trio consisting of seniors Marcus Allen and Grant Verhoeven, and junior Dorian Pickens all scored 10 against Harvard. A season ago, Pickens averaged 12.3 points and 3.6 rebounds while Travis scored 12.8 points in eight contests.

Matadors Continue Road Trip at Stanford

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Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Darin Johnson

Rakim Lubin

Aaron Parks

Kendall Smith

California State University Northridge Athletics